Boulder City Review
The Central Market downtown is closing Sunday, a call to the store confirmed today.
The historic downtown business was purchased by the California family from longtime owners Wayne and Helen Goble in April. David Walker, along with wife Kathy and son Corey, took over the store April 9.
The Gobles, who sold and bought back the market four times since first purchasing it in 1982, own the building.
David Walker retired from owning a grocery store in Southern California, he started to go “stir crazy” and began looking for a new store in Las Vegas, where his son Corey lived.
Central Market initially opened on Wyoming Street in 1932 and has been at its present location since 1948.
Wayne Goble said in April he and his wife were ready to sell the store because they are both in their 70s. They have had to buy the store back time after time from people who could not run it properly, and because it’s important for the downtown area to have a market seniors can get to by walking, he said.
At that time, Goble didn’t expect to have the same problem again.
“(The Walkers) have more experience than anyone we’ve sold it to previously,” he said at that time. “They’re pretty knowledgeable grocery people.”
Maybe if the new owners had kept Central Market as it was, a hometown market, instead of jacking up the prices, putting high end expensive products in there and yanking out the Western Family brand which we could afford, maybe just maybe they would have made a “go” of it…….. I could tell from the beginning with the changes they made, it wasn’t going to be long before they would fail. The older folks in town relied on Central Market for groceris as they could not get to the chain stores all the way at the end of town. It’s a shame the new owners didn’t realize that…… Now, an icon will be gone. And senior citizens will be at a loss for being able to get to the store on their own. What a shame.
My first purchase in Boulder City in 1974 was Central Market, living there in the mid 90′s it was our favorite place to shop. I’ve watch the store change over the years but of all the small town markets in my travels I never expected to hear that they were closing. A sad day